How to prevent tomatoes splitting
Organic gardener Sally Smith answers your questions about how regular watering may prevent ripe tomatoes from splitting. If you have split tomatoes, share your story in the comment section below.
Jacqui from Crawley, West Sussex, asks: I came back from a week's holiday to find that a lot of my ripe tomatoes were split. Is this due to a lack of water? Are they simply too ripe, or is there a problem?
Answer: Intermittent watering especially following a dry spell will cause sudden rapid growth and expansion of the fruits. The outer skins often split and the fruits are spoilt. You don't say if your plants are container grown or are in soil either in a greenhouse or outdoors?
Those that are grown in soil are less likely to suffer from this problem if the soil has plenty of moisture retaining organic matter dug in before planting and if you apply a mulch to the soil when it is wet, a 3cm thick layer of grass clippings or straw is effective. Pots or containers should never be allowed to dry out and regular watering is definitely key for avoiding many problems with tomatoes.
Another common problem caused by poor watering is blossom end rot. The fruits develop a hard leathery black patch at the 'blossom', that is, the base end of the fruit. This is actually a calcium deficiency but is caused through a shortage of water slowing down the transport of calcium in the plant.
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